This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art. This section also provides a general summary of the disclosure, and is not a comprehensive disclosure of its full scope or all of its features.
Over twenty million intubations occur in the United States each year. Endotracheal intubation is a procedure where a tube is placed through the mouth and into the trachea to create an artificial circuit for breathing. In the emergency setting, this life-saving procedure is most often performed by health care personnel with the least amount of experience and in the most difficult of circumstances. Failure rates in emergency intubations when conducted by emergency medical personnel range from 10-50%, incurring high human and healthcare costs, not limited to brain damage and death. There are 180,000 deaths per year in the pre-hospital emergency setting alone from misplaced endotracheal tubes and many more when including misplaced tubes in the hospital setting. The cost of failed or difficult intubation can be very high as reflected in a private settlement in excess of $15 million in 2002.
Over half of emergency intubations are performed by first-responders in the pre-hospital setting. The majority of first-responders are in their middle twenties, have minimal training and an average of only three years of experience. First responders are mandated to perform only five intubations to be certified, yet studies have shown that 15 to 20 intubations are necessary to attain basic skill proficiency. Once in the field, 67% of paramedics will only perform one or two intubations per year. The training standard for paramedics is also significantly less than the minimum requirement of 200 intubations for emergency medicine clinicians or over 400 for anesthesiologists.
The intubation device of the present teachings enables less experienced practitioners to be as successful as highly trained anesthesiologists because the device enables enhanced control of the distal tip of the intubation device for placing the tube within the trachea of the patient.
The intubation device of the present teachings is a medical device that is designed to improve the efficacy and safety of emergency intubations, especially in the hands of less-skilled practitioners. The intubation device can comprise a main body portion defining a first longitudinal axis, a distal tip portion coupled to the main body portion and defining a second longitudinal axis, and a deflection system having a single drive member extending within at least the distal tip portion and coupled thereto. The deflection system is operable to exert a tensile force upon the distal tip portion to articulate the distal tip portion relative to the main body portion between a resting position and a positive incline position and a negative incline position. In some embodiments, the intubation device can comprise a plurality of notches formed along the distal tip portion and can be actuated in response to movement of a slider member.
Further areas of applicability will become apparent from the description provided herein. The description and specific examples in this summary are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.
Corresponding reference numerals indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings.